It’s better in the Bahamas for Afie Jurvanen

There are many signs that you’ve made it in this world. Not all of them good.

Afie Jurvanen is only slightly surprised when informed he can consider himself among the inauspicious members of the latter group, thanks to appearing in The New York Times — in the newspaper of record’s Corrections section.

“I did? In what context? Was it the spelling of my name?” Jurvanen asks, knowing the answer is, of course, yes. “Aw, that’s fantastic to hear. That’s the sort of stuff I’ve got to pass along to my mother. As a child with a weird name she sort of cares about that stuff more than I do.”

Actually, Jurvanen and his mom can take heart that the NYT — and many other U.S. and international media outlets as well as his fellow patriots up here in the hinterland — are writing about him, all of it in the most glowing of terms. That’s thanks in large part to Barchords, his sophomore album recorded under the Bahamas name, and the supporting tour, which brings him to Calgary for a sold-out show at the Palomino Thursday.

The album helps build from the buzz of the singer-songwriter’s Juno- and Polaris Prize-nominated 2009 release, Pink Strata, while also building on the sound of that lo-fi effort, and showcasing, what Jurvanen thinks, is a band playing with confidence.

“I don’t know if that’s a product of the first record, its successes or failures. I think more than anything it’s probably just the result of me doing something for an extended period of time, which was touring,” says the Ontario musician, whose collective features bassist Darcy Yates and drummer Jason Tait, supplemented by vocalists Carleigh Aikins and Felicity Williams for tours.

“It allowed the band to grow and me to get comfortable with myself as a writer and a singer. And I knew that I wanted to make a record that was more realized, more of a sonic statement, with a stronger narrative front to back. My first record was a collection of songs and more or less a live album that we recorded in a day or two. This one, I knew that I wanted to make something a little more realized.”

That it is. Barchords is a beautifully executed bedroom record that sits comfortably alongside works by such other notable Canadian artists as Leonard Cohen, Ron Sexsmith and Feist, the latter being someone whom he toured with as her guitarist for several years.

Its intimacy lies not only in the cohesion of the album as a whole — he likens it to a novel, and hopes it’s experienced and treated as such — but in the personal ghosts Jurvanen sets loose to wander through the empty rooms in nakedly honest lyrics such as “Back when we started, before we parted, I would wonder what could make her stay/What was I thinking? As if my drinking was the only think that drove her away.”

He admits the songs came from the dissolution of a long-term relationship and the helplessness that came with the experience, but says he wanted to frame it in an optimistic way, also setting those dark lyrics and ideas against melodies that were a little more hopeful.

“What I feel when I hear it or think about it, it’s just the sound of someone struggling with something that’s profound and heavy and just finding some way to be OK with that struggle,” he says. “That the struggle potentially won’t go away, it’s just part of who you are and you carry that struggle with you all the time. There’s acceptance in there and in some ways a celebration of those difficulties.”

Again, it’s striking a chord in listeners and reviewers, who are finally now fully appreciating Jur­vanen for his work in Bahamas, and focusing less on that Feist past as well his work with Howie Beck, the Stills and Zeus, as even his connection to Jack Johnson, who releases the Bahamas’ albums down in the States on his own Brushfire Records label.

“You sort of hope that the thing that you make will stand on its own,” he admits. “But of course those associations are obviously part of my musical past, and for that matter I’m proud of them. It’s a big part of my life and I spent a lot of time in that world, and I think it’s some of the best music I’ve heard, not just been a part of. And I feel lucky to have been a part of that. So if anybody wants to ask about that stuff I’m happy to continue to celebrate it.”

And as for his own music being celebrated, Jurvanen is philosophical about it knowing that press, good or bad, is part of being an artist in this day and age.

“I put this album out into the world hoping that people would hear it,” he says. “So the fact that it’s getting any sort of reception is humbling, it’s moving because it’s in the presence of a lot of other good music.

“And at the same time . . . I’m aware that it’s out there and happening but I try and be pretty vigilante about protecting myself from reading all of the,” he pauses, “The New York Times’ corrections and things like that.”

Bahamas performs a sold-out show Thursday at the Palomino.

mbell@calgaryherald.com Follow on Twitter@mrbell_23

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